Simpsons Ride and Krustyland at Universal Studios

This post has nothing to do with Shanghai or China...


I have no idea how I got on Fox's mailing list but anyway, I was just notified that a new Simpsons ride is due to open soon in Hollywood and Orlando, Florida.

I checked it out and it really looks like my type of thing - so much fun!

Pictures from here.






The LA Times has a couple of articles here, here, here and here.

According to sources, the new Simpsons Ride/Krustyland is taking over the Back to the Future ride, and is due to open on May 17 or 24 in Hollywood, Los Angeles. Simpsons ride creators even added a hommage to “Back to the Future” with a brief appearance by an animated Doc Brown, the mad inventor from the movie.

Visitors to the $40-million attraction enter through Krusty’s gaping mouth, walking along his unfurled squishy red tongue and swatting at a uvula punching bag hanging at the back of his throat. In the queue, posters advertise many of the Krustyland rides and attractions.

Once through the queue, visitors wait in Funhouse loading rooms before boarding the Simpsons simulator ride. An Itchy & Scratchy safety video vividly warns riders what can happen if they don’t follow the rules.

Riders climb aboard the Krustymobile via a gull wing-style door — a nod to Doc Brown’s DeLorean time machine. The ride vehicle glows with garish LED lights in the blacklight-lit room.

The six-minute motion simulator ride follows the Simpsons clan as they are plucked from the crowd at the Krustiest Place on Earth to be the first family to tackle the “upsy-downsy, spins-aroundsy, teen-operated ride thrilltacular.”

Krustyland Rides

* Traumanator Roller Coaster
* Tooth Chipper Roller Coaster
* The Sea Captain’s Queasy Time Lagoon Adventure
* Radioactive Man – the Ride
* Captain Dinosaur’s Pirate Rip Off
* Screamatorium of Dr. Frightmarestein (starring Milhouse, Ralph and Cletus)
* Happy Little Elves in Panda Land
* Krusty’s Balloon Parade
* Death Drop
* Yard Work Simulator

Krustyland Shows

* Krusty’s Wet & Smokey Stunt Show
* The Isotop-ettes Musical Spectacular (starring twin sisters Patty and Selma)
* Sideshow Mel & Mr. Teeny’s Musical revue
* Impervo the Painless (starring Groundskeeper Willie)
* Madame Manjuala: The Future Looker-Atter (starring Apu’s wife)


Looks awesome. I loved Universal Studios in Japan and the Back to the Future ride but this sounds even better! I'm not a fan of those upside-down spinning twirling rides that leave me feeling very dizzy and nauseous, but Universal Studios' ride are just the best - I loved all of them!

Strange experiences

Strange experiences

Yesterday I met up with another Australian expat girl... Afterwards, I went to Chaterhouse Books in Times Square. I must be a glutton for punishment (after my last experience). Anyway I decided to try my luck. I had a list of about 50 books and on that list, 10 I really wanted. I also wanted to see if they had Lonely Planet Taiwan.

Well I was very disappointed. If you like fiction you're in luck. If you don't, the selection is dismal to say the least. Or maybe it's my electic taste. Who knows? But NONE of the non-fiction topics that I am interested in were there. I couldn't believe it. None at all. To give you an example: The 'health' section consisted of one narrow self that had books on: dieting and weight loss, caring for babies and children. That's it! Nothing of substance at all for those who are not looking to lose weight and don't have kids (ie me). The business and computer section was highly disappointing too. Humph.

Apparently they are not legally allowed to import any book relating to Taiwan. I said so I can't find it in another bookstore in Shanghai? And the lady said she didn't know but they didn't want to do it for fear of getting into trouble with the authorities.

Anyway, while I was there there was a girl (about 10 years of age) with her mother. I could not believe my ears when she swapped effortlessly between Shanghainese - Mandarin - English, back and forth. She spoke Mandarin with a perfect Beijing accent and English with a perfect American accent. Unbelievable! It's unbelievable how easy it is for kids to learn languages. When my sister and I were growing up one of my mother's friends had some young kids we used to play with. The mother was Vietnamese Chinese and the father was a white South African. From the moment they could talk the father forced them to only talk Chinese (Mandarin) with their mother and English with him. As a result they swapped back and forth so easily, so effortlessly. I was probably around 10 at the time and remember this so clearly. If only it were that easy for adults - d'oh!

Today, I was doing some last minute shopping for relatives in Taiwan. Both my parents had rung me with a 'shopping list' of things to buy and gifts for people. While I was doing this I accidently found a really great DVD store that had heaps of English/foreign DVDs. I finally got Ang Lee's Lust Caution (after my father reminded me I was supposed to get this for him!). I made them play it (two copies - one for me and one for dad) in the store to make sure 1) it was working fine and not dodgy, 2) the deleted scenes were intact. It was copied from the "Taiwan version" so yeah it was all there. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry! Here I was watching some R-rated sexually explicit scenes (in fast forward motion) with a guy in a little DVD store. So so strange! I almost felt guilty. I felt like a pimply 16-year-old boy sniggering. Haha. The thing is, the cut scenes don't really affect the movie that much but still, it does play a role in the script so who wouldn't want a complete movie if they can get one? Unfortunately for hubby there are no English sub-titles so he'd better learn Mandarin quick smart if he wants to watch it (not that I can talk, ha!)

Also, I saw they had the Simpsons Movie too so I nabbed that one. In English this time!

Simpsons Avatars

OK so this has absolutely nothing to do with Shanghai apart from starting with the letter "S" but I found this on someone else's blog yesterday and had to share. Even if you don't watch the Simpsons it's a whole lot of fun.

Go to http://www.simpsonsmovie.com/main.html and create your own Simpsons avatar to look just like you!

Here is mine, hehe.